Industry

Industry

Industry is the most important area of Ukraine's economy. In the current structure of Ukraine's industry a great proportion is occupied by heavy industry, especially the steel, machine-building and coal industries. A considerable part is played by the food and light industries. Top position is held by machine building.

The black coal industry is concentrated in two basins: Donets and Lviv-Vol-hynia. The largest centre of the brown coal industry is Kirovograd region. The oil and gas industries are located in the Subcarpathian and Left-Bank regions, but the extraction of oil and natural gas is insufficient to satisfy the country's needs.

Ukraine has a strong power generation industry. Large thermal and hydroelectric stations have been built. There are 10 nuclear power plants in Ukraine. Apart from the infamous plant in Chor-nobyl, others are to be found in Rivne, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytsky, the Crimea and Mykolayiv regions.

The metallurgical industry includes the ferrous and non-ferrous industries. Metallurgical plants are spread through three regions — the Donbas, Dnieper and Azov Coast regions.

The machine-building industry is presently the largest branch of industry. Instrument-making is one of the most scattered branch. A plant in Sumy produces such diverse instruments as electron microscopes and cine-cameras. An important place is occupied by heavy machine building, which provides plant and equipment for metallurgy, power stations and cement plants. A large plant is located in Kramatorsk and is a leading supplier of metallurgical equipment and powerful excavators. Smaller enterprises have been built in other centers of the Donbas and Dnieper area. Here large plants turn out powerful turbines, generators and steam boilers.

Shipbuilding is now an important branch of industry. Seagoing vessels are built at shipyards located in Mykolayiv, Kherson and Kyiv.
The motor vehicle industry sprung up after WW II, Buses are produced in Lviv, passenger cars in Zaporizhia, lorries in Kremenchuk, and both passenger and transport vehicles in Lutsk. Kharkiv has a specialized vehicle engine works. Aeroplanes are built in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Farm machinery plants turn out nearly all types of soil cultivating, sowing and harvesting machines. The manufacture of tractors and combine harvesters is concentrated in large plants such as Kharkiv Tractor Works.

The chemical industry embraces the production of acids, alkalis, salts, fertilizers, dyes, detergents, plastics, synthetic fibres, pharmaceuticals and other goods.

The manufacture of building materials is well-developed in all of Ukraine's regions. Ukrainian limestone, sandstone, marble, granite, gabbro and labradorite already face thousands of buildings through the country. Cement works are located mainly in the Donets-Dnieper and Southwestern Economic Areas.

Ukraine's food industry is located mostly in the Forest-Steppe (sugar), the Steppe (vegetable oils), the South (fruit canning, wine). There are many textile enterprises in Ukraine: cotton (Kherson, Ternopil), linen (Rivne, Zhytomyr), wool (Chernihiv, Luhansk), silk (Kyiv, Cherkasy). Garment and footwear industries are located in large population centres. China and pottery enterprises have developed in Kharkiv, Sloviansk, in the area of Novohrad-Volynsky.